Northfield Shares

Northfield Shares Celebrates Random Acts of Kindness Week 2019

NORTHFIELD, MINN. (February 12, 2019) – Northfield Shares, the Northfield area’s community foundation centered on philanthropy, volunteerism and collaborative leadership, is encouraging community members to perform random acts of kindness in celebration of National Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Week 2019, which runs from February 17-22. The worldwide celebration is spearheaded and inspired by The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, an international nonprofit founded upon a belief in kindness and dedicated to providing resources and tools that encourage acts of kindness. An expanded list of information and related materials can be found at northfieldshares.org/kindness.

“Northfield Shares encourages everyone to participate in Random Acts of Kindness Week and experience the joy that comes from doing good things for others,” says Mary Lynn Oglesbee, Northfield Shares Inspiring Volunteerism Committee chair. “The power of kindness can bring together people from all walks of life to strengthen a community.”

Northfield Shares is celebrating RAK Week using a specially developed local calendar with daily themes.

“Northfield Shares believes it’s important to offer daily themes locally,” says Mike Krance, Northfield Shares executive director. “Looking for opportunities to offer kindness during the course of our everyday routines should not be a daunting task, and daily themes can enable people to more easily focus their energies throughout the week.”

Krance adds that the organization’s Inspiring Volunteerism Committee has been hard at work enhancing its ways of implementing simple acts of kindness in the community. While the ideas can be endless, the committee has created a list of 50 Ideas for RAK Week, ranging from shoveling a neighbor’s driveway to giving blood to donating to charity just to get your ideas started.

In addition, Northfield Shares will again offer the Moo Kindness Game in which players share an act of kindness and then give their recipient a “You’ve been MOOed” sign. In return, the person who has been “MOOed” is encouraged to post the sign and then pay it forward. You can also download a “You’ve been MOOed” image to your cell phone to text or email to those with whom you share your kindness.

New this year, Northfield Shares developed a Kindness BINGO game—one for kids and one for adults—in which participants are encouraged to cross off squares as they complete acts of kindness during the week.

Participants and their parents are then asked to share their progress on the Northfield Shares Facebook page. You’ll need to first “like” the page and then tag @NorthfieldShares in the message related to BINGO, MOOing or other acts of kindness during the week.

As previously mentioned, the list of kindness ideas, window signs, Kindness Bingo and Moo Kindness Game, as well as a kindness outline and themes and ideas for each day of the week, can be found at northfieldshares.org/kindness.

“By providing resources that enable individuals to easily make a positive impact, our hope is to inspire kindness not only during the week of celebration but all year long as well,” says Krance. “It’s fun to see people going out of their way to do nice things for others, and we’re happy to play a small role in helping strengthen the Northfield community in this way.”

Northfield Shares is the Northfield area’s community foundation founded to advance philanthropy, inspire volunteerism and promote collaborative leadership. The organization was formed when 5th Bridge and Northfield Area Foundation merged in 2014. For more information about Northfield Shares, visit northfieldshares.org.